As one of known seat sliding apparatus for vehicles, Japanese Patent Utility Model 58(1983)-19836 discloses therein a seat sliding apparatus which includes: a lower rail fixedly mounted on an upper surface of a floor of a vehicle; an upper rail secured to a lower surface of a seat of the vehicle and mounted to be movable in a longitudinal direction of the lower rail; and restricting means for restricting a slidable movement of the upper rail over a predetermined moving amount in the longitudinal direction in a state where the upper rail has already been mounted onto the lower rail. This restricting means is configured with cut and bent portions formed at an upper wall near both ends of the upper rail and stepped portions formed at a flange inside of the lower rail. The lanced portions of the upper rail each come in contact with the stepped portions of the lower rail. Each cut and bent portion is formed by cutting and bending a portion of the upper wall of the upper rail after mounting the upper rail to the lower rail.
In the seat sliding apparatus for the vehicle described above, a process is required after putting the upper rail and the lower rail together, which process is for example a press working for forming the lanced portions, which serve as restricting means. That is, an additional process is required, which may result in an increase in a manufacturing time. Further, when large force is applied to an assembly of the upper rail and the lower rail, each component may undesirably deform, which may deteriorate a sliding performance of the upper rail relative to the lower rail.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a seat sliding apparatus for a vehicle and a method of mounting an upper rail onto a lower rail of the seat sliding apparatus. According to the seat sliding apparatus and the method, sliding performance of the upper rail relative to the lower rail is not deteriorated, and the seat sliding apparatus is manufactured with a simple process.